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4 Tips To Write Effective Web Friendly Content

As mentioned in a previous post, writing for the internet is a skill. It takes time. It takes effort. And possibly a coffee enema every once in a while. And whilst that post covers a technical side, I’m now going to share something with you that is going to blow your socks clean off creatively. I’m talking right-across-the-room, into somebody’s cup of tea. That kind of blown off. Prepared?

It’s easy to write quality content for the internet.

Seriously, it’s true. Of course you probably know this already, and I’m not saying you can just sit there and produce the highest quality web-friendly pieces of work immediately. However, given a little practice and taking on-board a little of this advice, then you are increasing your chances to produce stellar prose that gets noticed, shared and commented upon.

You’ll be the Gary Oldman of internet literature. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing yet.

1. Write what you love. Love what you write.

I’m writing this article not because my job demands it, but because I want to talk to you. I’m passionate about writing something that helps. The key word there is ‘passion’. If you don’t love, or even like the topic you are going to write about, then it has failed from the start.

When you are talking to friends, do you speak in an unnatural way? A way that makes them want to break their own fingers rather than listen to your story? Probably not. So why write that way. Write how you would talk:

Make it personable.

Keep it as natural as possible.

Include ‘you’ and ‘your’ if you can.

It should flow like a conversation

Throw in a few toilet gags.*

*Judge your audience wisely.

If people see you’ve written something that you obviously care about, then they are much more likely to engage with it.

2. Find the angle

Sometimes though, you might have something you have to write about, which you don’t really have any affinity for.

If I had 500 words to say about this man, none of them would make me feel particularly warm inside.

But that’s the challenge. That’s what anyone writing should be thinking about. Choosing a great angle that makes writing about your chosen subject as interesting as possible.

I used to work for an appliance retail company and you wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to come up with new and interesting ways to talk about ovens.

But that’s the thrill of it. Finding that way is what makes it a great challenge. That spark of inspiration which gives you the juice to keep writing until you’ve got something that you truly believe is interesting. That you would want to read yourself.

Example: If you have to write something about DIY in a work capacity, then find something that appeals to you. Home improvement for instance. If you’re not on the ball with this and you’d more than likely destroy the room rather than rebuild it, then make the article about that. Use your experience. Think of the different angles you can take:

‘DIY Disasters You Want to Avoid.’

‘5 Examples of Major Building Fails’

‘DIY – What to do when you don’t know what to do.’

These are just a couple of examples in which you could make an article worth reading. If people are on lunch and only have a few minutes to read, they want their reading like that lunch. Interesting and quickly digestible.

As mentioned in a previous article, you have a limited amount of time before people get bored and move on. Web users are scanners, not readers. This is crucial to remember when it comes to writing web content.

Imagine this, but with a food encrusted beard, an inflated sense of self-importance and the attention span of a 2 year old.

Break up the page into bite-sized portions. Now, would you rather read this:

Your web content has to compete with millions of other pages. So you need to make sure you are saying something worthwhile. Your readers should be taken on a rollercoaster of emotion when they skim through your writing.

From the highs….

There’s an 60% chance you just tilted your head and said ‘Awww.”

To the lows….

While there’s a 100% chance he’s under your bed right now.

Getting people to challenge or agree with your opinion is ideal for content. They might be willing to share with others. They might engage with you, sometimes to congratulate and other times to condemn what you have written.

Provoke that reaction. Get readers involved. Make them question what you are telling them. That’s what the internet excels at.

I’d be interested to know what you think. Do you agree? Disagree? What’s your advice for content writing? Please feel free to leave comments.

Totally agree with everything in this. You really need a passion or at least a slight interest in the topic to be able to write about it competently and succinctly everything else is just rambling, Oh and I can beat your appliance retail content… in my last job I had to write about air conditioning (not just once but for THREE different sites), awnings, alloy wheels and office space – yawwwwnnn

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